When It Rains, It Overflows

The city's sewers are old and taxed, overflowing roughly 50 times a year as a nasty mix of sewage and storm water run into area waterways. The Metropolitan District Commission is getting ready to begin work this spring on its decade-long, $2 billion Clean Water Project to fix the problem. As it does, city residents may notice a few things.

Like, for instance, work that goes on around the clock. The city council recently amended the city's noise ordinance to allow for approved work to take place outside of normal work hours - 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays.

Why? Because in at least three areas of the city, the commission will need to dig tunnels and run pipes well below the surface.

"Once you start it, you can't stop it until it's done," Chris Stone, an attorney with the commission, said of the tunneling. It's not the subterranean drilling, though, that could make the most noise. It's the trucking needed above ground to take away the tunneled material.

"We still have to mitigate as best we can, we still have to get administrative permission from the city to do it," Stone said.

Keep an eye out for a comprehensive look at the project in the Courant later this spring. For now, click here to watch an informative -- if odd -- video about the project hosted by a guy in 19th-century get-up.